Radio and Travel Inspired Ramblings

 In 1977 and 1978 I was living in NE Scotland, having gotten out of the US Navy there earlier in 1977.

 I decided to take flying lessons towards getting certified in sailplanes, also known as gliders.

 I lived not far from the Deeside Gliding Club, Aboyne Airfield, about 20 miles inland from Montrose on the Scotland coast.  elevation is about 400 ft above sea level.

The club members gave lessons in a Capstan T49 sailplane, an unusual 2-seat configuration sitting side-by-side. 
It is a high-winged monoplane glider of wooden construction, they were built in the 1960's.  People used to want to fly it solo, with a counterweight mounted in the other seat, because it was very roomy and a fairly good performance sailplane.

One day in January with great wave conditions coming over the Cairngorm mountains to the west, we had such good lift that we pulled off the tow after only 1000 ft elevation and started to climb much faster than the tow plane could have pulled us, over 1000 ft per minute.  We soared up to 10,000 ft altitude, near the max for not using supplemental oxygen.  The plane had O2 but we hadn't expected to fly that high and weren't hooked up to it.  I flew with the instructor for over an hour, practicing turns and learning to judge speed by the sound and attitude of the cockpit view. We didn't have a radio and the instructor was concerned that someone else might be waiting to fly the 2-seat Capstan, so we decided to head back.  How to kill 9,000 feet of altitude when the plane wanted to keep soaring higher and higher in the mountain wave?  I remember he asked me "how's your stomach today?" and suggested we do a few loops to lose altitude fast.  I said fine and was thrilled when we pointed the sailplane straight down at the ground to gain airspeed !!

Sailplanes are made to be aerobatic because they are frequently flown in very tight circles to stay within rising air currents.  An updraft of air can be caused by fields being warmed by the sun, and rising upcurrents of air are usually very narrow.  Sailplane pilots try to soar from one upcurrent to another, spiraling in tight circles and flying higher until the updraft stops, then gliding across to the next, using birds and clouds to tell them where the rising air pockets are located.

Being built for aerobatics, sailplanes can do loops :-)  With the nose pointed straight down, we got the airspeed up to 100 knots or so and the instructor pulled the stick back hard.  The G-meter went WAY up as we came out of the dive, I looked over at him and his face was flattened out against the seat and I could hardly move.  Up and up we went, past vertical until we were upside down, the airspeed was almost zero and all noise stopped for a second and then the plane continued over the top of the loop and back down..

 We did this two more times and eventually lost enough altitude to land.  That day was a flight I'll never forget !!!